Everyone Home SafeThe group left Lobuche on a summit high under lovely blue skies and dropped to Pangbouche. Summit offered us the option to walk up to Ama Dablam base camp as a long day walk the next day, and not surprisingly everyone was feeling too exhausted for another big day. Even Will opted out, possibly due to an overindulgent afternoon in the Pangbouche bakery. So the decision was made to take a leisurely descent to Lukla via 2 nights in Namche instead.
The next morning was filled with goodbyes and well wishes. Sadly the group was split between those returning to Kathmandu (Pete, Lexi, Mario, Erika, Will) and those off to more Khumbu adventures in Ama Dablam, Island peak and Everest (Lakpa, Pasang, Dendi, Anna, Chris).
Team LobucheThe Kathmandu party walked to Namche via Tengbouche monastery, whilst the others went up to set up Ama Dablam base camp. In Namche, we rested, ate, shopped, washed (yeah!!!), rested more and just relaxed. It was glorious! We thought about the Ama Dablam team in the cold and snow whilst sipping hot chocolate and feeling clean : ) Lexi left us early due to work demands back in Kathmandu and Lakpa jnr also bid us goodbye to guide a Bangladeshi team on Everest.
Eventually we made the descent to the valley floor, breaked in Monjo and Ghat before arriving in Lukla under hail stones and rain! What a great way to end the trek. On our last night, we ate traditional dhal bhat with our porter staff to thank them for their amazing service. Fortunately, the afternoon’s bad weather cleared the skies the next morning for our flight back to Kathmandu.
Meanwhile, the Ama Dablam team are working their way up to the notorious camp 2. Keep you posted on that….Sabita